Beam me in, Scotty.

• Author: Boerner, Robert D.
• Position: Videoconferencing - Includes related article

Gathering at various school and college videoconference sites across the state, some as far away as 500 miles from the capital, 288 Wyoming ranchers recently "attended" a meeting on proposed legislation to change brand inspections.

Their testimony was fed back over telephone lines to Cheyenne's videoconference center. Each videoconference site, equipped with a system of television monitors, microphones, cameras and other equipment, enabled the ranchers to see and hear participants at other locations as if they were in the same room. Pam Child, Wyoming's video communications coordinator, says the beauty of the videoconference was that everyone was able to come together in live time, hear firsthand the proposed changes, voice their opinions and agree on policies that everyone could live with.

Using similar technology, interested citizens in Kentucky met in the Legislative Research Commission office in Frankfort and in five college and university classrooms across the state for a briefing before the Business Organizations and Professions Committee. At issue was how the state's 1994 charitable gaming law affected nonprofit corporations. Was the law doing what it was supposed to do to prevent commercialization of charitable gaming, keep out criminals and hinder the diversion of funds from legitimate charitable purposes? Citizens testified and discussed with lawmakers how to most effectively amend the law.

In March 1995, the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare held a teleconference that brought together educators, teenagers, parents, senior citizens and social workers from nearly every one of the state's 67 counties. They used the teleconference to determine the most serious problems confronting children: crime, juvenile delinquency, dropout rates and poor school performance. The teleconference was part of an effort to develop a plan for using money from a new federal source.

Testimony from citizens and experts before state legislative committees is now as close as a television monitor at a videoconference site. These sites, once primarily found in large corporate offices, are becoming more common in schools, colleges, state government offices and capitol buildings. As of 1995, 16 legislatures were using teleconferences (audio only) or videoconferences (one-way or two-way video): Alaska, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Richard Hezel, author of Beyond Convergence: Teleconferencing in State Government explains that support from a legislator or governor is essential in obtaining the funding for a system. There are several reasons a legislature or government agency may want to use videoconferencing technology. Its an efficient tool for training people, and it's cost effective. In Pennsylvania, police officers can be trained by videoconference for $5 each, while on-site training is more than $100.

And this form of electronic democracy has...